Editor's Note: In part 2 of our two part blog series we take a closer look at what credit unions can do to change some of the grim statistics in the report. If credit unions want to gain back some market share, especially with the Millennial generation, they need to change some of the ways they are marketing their "different" services.

Editor's Note: Millennials is a term that everybody is familiar with and far too frequently used. In this blog, we take a deeper dive into the "Millennial" generation and how financial institutions need to understand Gen Y and Gen Z if they want to be successful with the younger population.

Editor's Note: We are more digitally connected than ever before, and that trend doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. As the digital web continues to become part of our daily lives, it leaves an enormous amount of opportunities for banks and credit unions to capitalize on. In this blog we discuss customer interaction and how banks can succeed if they can adapt!

4 Reasons to Get Engaged in Data Driven Digital Relationships with Your Customers

Few organization hold more data about their customers than financial institutions. Banks and credit unions know where their customers and members live, how much money they make, what their net worth is, who they do business with and what their financial needs are. However, most bankers will admit that this data is under utilized when it comes to building a trusted, value-added relationship with consumers.

This infographic presents data on how consumers interact with their financial institutions and what they want and expect when it comes to these interactions. It is imperative that banks and credit unions begin to develop a strategy for accessing and converting the data they hold about their customers and members to actionable information that can be used to personalize products and services.

To build a successful strategy for leveraging customer data in their digital channels, financial institutions will need to replace the disparate, legacy systems they currently use to deliver their digital services. This need is currently driving a number of early replacement projects at banks such as Arvest and First Tennessee. These replacement efforts are the largest of their kind in the industry in more than a decade and they are being completed by emerging technology providers that offer modern tech stacks that are highly configurable, scalable, secure and proven.

Editors Note: Shared finances is an evolving market for financial instituations. Peter Wannemacher of Forrester discusses the void of financial institutions serving the complex financial relationships involving family, business partners, etc. As Millennials become to gain more economic power, it will be critical for both financial institutions and businesses to not be reactive to demands such as these, but ancipatory and predictive for personalized services.

No one disputes that branch traffic is down and digital use is up at financial institutions. However, there is much debate over the conclusion that such a trend means that branchless banking is just around the corner. To some, the argument for keeping branches open seems to be backward facing, to a time long gone when most consumers had to make a personal visit to their financial institution to make deposits, open accounts and send money. Why hang onto branches when all those services and more can be completed on digital devices? To others, the inability of banks and credit unions to personalize the end user’s digital experience makes them hesitant to close the branches where they still do the bulk of their selling.

The influence of digital access points on the decision by consumers to switch financial institutions continues to grow in importance. It makes a “business as usual” approach the most significant risk an institution can take in responding to the digital needs of customers. According to the Accenture 2014 North American Consumer Digital Banking survey, more than one in four customers would likely consider a branchless digital bank. In addition, nearly three-quarters of US customers—two-thirds in Canada—consider their banking relationship “merely transactional.”

Earlier this month, The Financial Brand announced that it was changing the name of its recently acquired Online Banking Report to the Digital Banking Report. According to Jim Marous, the reason for the name change was to expand the coverage of the report to include “the vast digital banking ecosystem.” Jim and The Financial Brand are some of the first – along with Gartner and a few others – to reinforce the strategic nature of the digital banking channel by departing from the fragmented terminology that too many organizations, firms and individuals in the industry still use.